Scizophrenia
by Broken-and-fallen
Summary: Raito and his family move to America so his father could get a better job, but he didn't expect having such an interesting neighbour.. RaitoL.
1. Prologue

Scizo˙phrenia, _n. _a severe mental illness. -- Raito sighed and rested his head back against his seat. The car was silent save for the gentle sounds coming from Sayu's headphones, and his father's knuckles were gripped so tightly on the steering wheel they were white. 

Raito didn't mean to snap at his father before they left. He knew that this job was the one Yagami-kun had been waiting for. But back home in Japan he had set up his own comfortable circle of friends, and he was practically the king of his school. He knew Sayu was taking it hard as well, she had barely said two words to their father during the trip. Raito had heard his mother try and console her the night before they left but soon after Sayu was shouting and crying and a few doors slammed.

The car stopped and Raito glanced up.

Two storey house, white fence, blue door, white shades. Raito and Sayu exchanged similar expression.

They all stepped out of the car and started unloading bags out of the boot. It was strange and depressing, they were moving about the job in complete silence. The furniture had already been moved inside a few days ago, so all that were left were their personal items.

Raito helped Sayu lift her large suitcase and she smiled at him as they lugged their way up to the obnoxiously bright door. Inside their mother announced lunch would be ready in an hour and the two teenagers went upstairs.

"Which rooms are ours?" Raito asked Sayu, not really caring. The teenager poked her head into the closest doorway and retreated just as quickly.

"Yours." She poked her thumb in the direction of the room and disappeared into the next room over. Slinging his bags over his shoulders Light entered the room and looked around.

Well, at least it was spacious.

His room was at the front corner of the second floor, and the wall-to-wall windows that stretched across his room gave him a wide view of the street out front and the double-storey house next door.

"Oh well…"

Dropping a bag onto his desk he began unpacking his books. His desk was huge compared to his one back home, polished mahogany that the sunlight outside cast a blood-like glow across. Dropping a stack of textbooks onto the table Raito cast a curious glance out the window at the house next door.

It was considerably less cheery than the Yagami's new household. The design was the same but the shades in the room opposite to Raito's were a dull grey colour and drawn closed with what looked like a silver clasp. There was no car parked in the drive and the garden looked wild and untamed, roses with needle-sharp thorns climbing their way up the stained bricks.

"So much for the Girl Next Door." Raito sighed glumly.

--

Lunch was set out in silence, except for when their mother asked Sayu if she was able to get in contact with her friends and the teenager snapped at her that she couldn't understand the American Internet to try.

"I'll change it for you if you like." Raito suggested, angry with his parents but still intent on keeping the peace. She agreed and they rushed from the table so quickly that the bowls clattered.

--

"Raito?"

"Hm?"

He glanced over his shoulder to where his sister was sitting on her bed, arms clasped around her knees and a thoughtful expression on her face.

"What if I don't find any new friends here? I don't speak English very well, you know…"

Raito smiled and tapped a few buttons, Sayu's expression brightening as the jumble of letters turned into recognisable symbols.

"You'll be fine." He assured her. "Want to say hi to the neighbours? Maybe there's some girls your age."

Sayu nodded and quickly sent an Email to her friends before grabbing her brother's hand and dragging him out of the house. The street was long and every house was like the ones from that American sitcom Sayu and their mother watched on Sunday nights. A jogging woman ran past and a few children were playing in the sprinkler across the road, their shrieks of laughter mingling in with the occasional dog bark.

"Oooh, creepy."

Raito blinked and turned to see Sayu head across to the shady house. Groaning he followed reluctantly.

"Trust you to straight for the mass-murderer house." He mumbled, and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"And you call me immature!"

She jogged up the path while Raito took his time stepping over the weeds and uneven cobblestones. He glanced up as the house loomed before them, Sayu practically skipping up to the porch with unlimited bubbling excitement.

"Uh Sayu?" Raito began slowly as she rang the doorbell a few times. "It doesn't look like anyone's home…"

"No, look!" she leant over and gestured towards the window. "There's a light on!"

_Damn_. Raito jumped the last few steps and joined his sister's side when the door opened slowly with a strangled squeak. Sayu bounced on the balls of her feet.

"Hello?" The old man asked pleasantly.

--

_Wagner. _

A long tapered finger tapped rhythmically against the bed frame, dark eyes staring up at the ceiling as headphones blared sound into his ears.

Suddenly the song was interrupted by the cheery sound of the doorbell ringing, and he blinked.

_Click._

Standing languidly he slowly made his way over to the window and tugged the curtain back a fraction, wincing as sunlight assaulted his eyes. There was a young girl and slightly older boy standing at the door. The boy was talking calmly with Watari, and the girl was looking back and forth between them with a rather dumb smile on her face.

Full but chapped lips parted, one eyebrow rose. The boy said something and Watari chuckled, before they waved and departed back down the path, the girl grabbing the boys arm and tugging him away.

He let the curtain close, and after a few gentle thumps his bedroom door opened.

"Pardon me sir. We have some new neighbours. Mr Yagami and his wife and two children."

"Japanese." The young man replied quietly.

"Yes."

When it appeared that the conversation wouldn't continue, Watari bowed and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Headphones returned to his ears and he let _Wagner _flood his senses once more.


	2. Chapter One

**Voyeurism**, _n_. Obtaining pleasure from watching someone.

Raito hadn't expected the few seconds of blind panic that met him when he awoke, not recognising the room around him. When he calmed down, he sunk back against his pillows with a sigh and closed his eyes.

"Onii-chan?" Sayu rapped on his bedroom door gently.

"Breakfast is nearly ready, hurry up and get dressed, okay?"

He grumbled out a half-reply and rolled out of bed, stretching his arms high above his head with a groan. It was much warmer here than it had been back home; he had given up trying to sleep in his usual pyjamas and opted for wearing just a pair of loose fitting cotton pants.

Yawning he tugged open the curtains to his room and winced as the hot sunlight assaulted his eyes. Outside a group of teenagers were shrieking with laughter, bags slung over their shoulders as they slowly meandered their way to school.

Raito found his eyes drawn to the creepy house next door and was surprised at what he saw. The curtains that had been clasped closed before were open, and the man they met the evening before – Watari, wasn't it – was dusting the windowsill. The windows were like Raito's, high and wide and stretching the width of the house. Raito smiled and waved but Watari didn't seem to notice as he disappeared to another part of the room.

Raito blinked.

Bare torso, skin ghost pale white, lean and rising from the bed languidly, blankets pooling around hips like dark water.

Raito lowered his hand slowly. Watari hadn't mentioned sharing the house with someone, let along a young man that looked only his own age. Just as the figure stretched and went to turn to the window the old man appeared again and drew the curtains closed calmly.

"Onii-chan?"

"Whoa!" Raito turned quickly, and Sayu giggled. Scowling he picked up a shirt and threw it at her. "Get out! Brat!"

She stuck her tongue out playfully and fled the room, the sound of her heels on the staircase echoing through the house.

--

When Raito surfaced from the second floor into the kitchen Sayu was digging into her cereal, a spreading grin on her face. His mother was setting the table when he sat down and he cast them both suspicious glances.

"What?"

"Oh nothing," his sister trilled. "Just we're shocked you've already started perving on the neighbours. And Mr Watari, too! Gross!"

Raito scowled at her and snatched some toast off a nearby plate.

"I was _not _perving on Mr Watari, idiot." He snapped, ignoring his mothers admonishing _"Light!"_.

"_Raito is a peerrrveeerrt_," Sayu sang, just as their father entered the kitchen in a flurry of briefcase, toast and half ironed jackets.

"Don't forget your notes!" Their mother raced out after him, and Raito and Sayu were left alone at the table. A few moments of silence passed, broken only by the gentle clattering of their cutlery and a door slamming outside.

"I heard them talking this morning." Sayu began. "They've enrolled us at a nearby High School. Dad wants you to get a job."

Raito nodded silently and took a sip of coffee.

"Aren't you annoyed?"

"A little." He admitted. "But he may have a point. I do need to start earning some money."

"As in doing _work_? Ew."

"You could offer to mow the neighbours lawn." His mother suggested as she returned. "That one on the left looks horrendous." 

--

So it was that Raito found himself a hour and a half later standing on Mr Watari's porch with Sayu beside him – giggling _again _– feeling like a complete idiot as the old man chuckled at his mumbled offer.

"Excuse me for just one moment," their neighbour implored, before heading slowly up the staircase just beyond the front door to the floor above. After a few minutes he returned with his polite smile on his face.

"It does seem like your services are needed. How much were you asking?"

--

Raito huffed and leant against the lawnmower, wiping sweat off his face with the back of his hand. His suspicions were right, it did seem like Mr Watari wasn't the master of the house after all.

Glowering against the sunlight he looked up to the second floor room with the dark rooms and was surprised to see them open again. He couldn't see the pale person, but the room was lit up with an unearthly green glow like you'd get from a computer.

A shadow passed across the curtains and Raito hastily turned back to his job.

_Definitely creepy, _Raito thought to himself, feeling the hairs at the nape of his neck rise.

--

Raito hissed as a jolt of stinging pain flashed down his spine, the towel dropping from his hand and falling to the ground with a wet flap. Tugging on his pyjama pants he carefully massaged his lower back with his hand. He wasn't used to doing yard work, and his back felt like it was on fire! Even worse was the fact that he had been asked to return tomorrow to continue onto the backyard.

Moaning pitifully as he was forced to bend over and retrieve his towel, Raito straightened and promptly dropped it again.

Dark messy wild hair set above pale shoulders and thin arms. Hunched form and spider-fingers that moved throughout the air as if the owner was conducting a symphony.

Blinking Raito watched silently as the conductor flung out an arm and sent a lamp smashing against a wall. There were loud bangs, the door flung open, and Watari drew the curtains closed.

"What the hell…" Raito breathed. The breeze swept through his open window and across the water droplets on his skin and he flinched as if touched by a ghost.

His bedroom door opened and Raito swung around.

"Raito honey, I just came to-" his mother paused at the deer-in-the-headlights expression on her son's face before continuing slowly. "…to tell you that your father managed to find a good school close to here. But… we can talk about that tomorrow. Are you alright?"

Raito cleared his throat.

"Fine. Just, I don't like it when you burst in like that." He closed the curtains, back facing to his mother as he tried to find his shirt.

She just chuckled.

"You really like your privacy, hm? Well okay then. I'll speak to you tomorrow. Goodnight." 

"Yeah," Raito replied distractedly. "Goodnight." 

When he slept he dreamt of home and how peaceful it had been before he moved to America and met the ghost boy.

--

" – Chan, Onii-chan!"

"What the bloody – SAYU! Get off!" Raito roared when his younger sister bouncing on the end of his bed rudely awakened him.

"But Onii-chan! Mum said I'm going to be going to the same school as you! The years are different here! Isn't that great Onii-chan? Isn't it awes – OW."

Sayu picked up the pillow that had been chucked at her head mid-rant and hugged it to her chest with a pout.

"That was mean." She scolded.

"OUT." Raito replied, bucking her off his bed so she was dumped onto the floor with a thump.

"FINE. I'm telling mum you hit me!" Sayu cried as she raced out of the room and released a squeal as Raito heard her trip on the stairway.

"Whatever."

Sighing he rolled over and buried his face back into his pillow, trying to win back some lost sleep.


	3. Chapter Two

**Balm**, _n_. Anything which heals or soothes.

"This is so _stupid_." Raito moaned, shoving all his weight against the lawnmower. His shoulders burned with the effort and he gave up, switching the machine off and sitting down on the freshly mown grass. Closing his eyes he sighed and rested his had back against the handle, but snapped upwards almost immediately when the snap of the front door roused his attention.

"Ah," Watari smiled pleasantly as he fitted a small hat onto his head, slinging a coat over his shoulders. "I need to go up the street to get some groceries, but I should return soon."

"Oh! Right." Raito quickly willed his body to stand and quelling the urge to groan restarted the lawnmower. Disappearing into the garage Watari quickly reappeared driving a small car and waved at Raito before pulling out of the driveway and disappearing down the street.

Against his will Raito felt his eyes drag to the upper floor, but all curtains were tightly drawn closed, and there were no signs of movement whatsoever. It was so strange. He could swear he'd seen someone other than Watari on more than one occasion, but he had never seen him outside, and Watari never mentioned living with anyone.

Raito raised an eyebrow thoughtfully as he rounded a corner in the garden. Perhaps the person was in the Witness Protection Unit? That might explain all the secrecy and living with a man who looked more than eight times his own age.

Suddenly the lawnmower refused to push and gave a large grating splutter. Raito tugged it violently but the machine emitted a high squeaking sound and then died altogether.

"You've got to be kidding me." He sighed, dropping his head back and wiping sweat away from beneath brown-red hair.

Crash. Smash. Splintering scrape.

Raito looked wildly over his shoulder back to the creepy house from where the sounds came, shoulders tensing. Watari was out shopping. That meant the noises must be caused by the strange boy he had seen. But why? He could hear screams now, hoarse shouts. Flinching, Raito was caught between the idea of running next door to call the Police or storming the house.

Maybe he was being burgled? Maybe there'd been an accident?

There was a thundering rumble and crash, like something heavy had fallen from a great height, and Raito threw caution to the winds as he abandoned the lawnmower and ran into the house, pushing the heavy front door open and entering the musty entrance hall.

An old wardrobe lay broken at the foot of a staircase, and Raito sidestepped around it, slowly making his way up the staircase.

The crashes continued, and Raito ducked on reflex as a vase smashed against a wall further upwards.

This was dangerous. Raito considered heading back home to get some help when he heard his voice.

"Shut up. Shut up shut up shut up. Stop it. Stop it!"

Soft voice, quiet enough to be a whisper but loud enough for Raito to hear.

"Shut up. I hate your eyes. Your eyes. Stupid eyes, useless eyes, stop it…"

Another smash.

"H-Hello?" Raito called up the staircase. A feeling of unease settled over him when the crashes suddenly halted.

Climbing the last few steps Raito cleared his throat and looked over the banister.

His immediate thought was – _wild_. Wild black hair over frantic black shining eyes, skin and pants pearl white and stained with random splatters of blood from the wild boy's weeping palms.

There were a few frozen moments as Raito took in the thousands of miniscule broken shards that carpeted the floor around the boy, the way his body was faced towards the wall and the cracks that ran across it, as if he was aiming for a particular spot. The way his eyes never blinked, even though they were locked against Raito's for a good few minutes.

Raito tried to say something. Nothing came out.

"Yagami Raito."

The teenager blinked, recognition slowly flickering in a corner of his mind.

"How did you know my name?" he asked suspiciously. The boy continued as if he hadn't spoken.

"Yagami Raito. Seventeen years old. Previous home location Japan." The boy suddenly took a step towards him, feet carefully manoeuvred between shards of glass. Raito felt his legs rooted to the lip of the staircase. "Hair, brunette. Eyes…"

The boy paused and Raito sucked in a breath as he realised they were mere centimetres away from each other.

The boy seemed to halt and slowly turned to look over his shoulder.

"… I hate your eyes." He whispered to the cracked wall.

Raito winced. This boy was _nuts_. He was talking to a wall! Raito finally found the feeling in his legs and rushed to head back down the stairs when he felt a talon grip on his arm. For a moment he felt a flash of fear. It was like something from a horror movie, he had snuck into a creepy house and now he was going to be killed by a psychotic boy with no shirt on.

The grip on his arm was bruising, and it didn't look like the stranger was going to let up any time soon, judging by the nonchalant determination in his face. Raito bit his lip. He was smart, he knew that.

_So be smart, stupid_. His inner voice told him.

"You're hurting me." He spoke up, noticing how the boy stilled at his voice, breath coming out in frightened harsh gasps.

"You're hurting me. Let go of my arm."

To his relief, the boy complied after a few moments of consideration. Smiling, Raito continued nervously with the hopes of calming the boy down.

"What's your name?"

Black eyes rose, shining with something closer to keenness than insanity. Raito decided that it must be true; there is a fine line between genius and insanity.

"L."

--

When Raito was younger his father had taken him to the hospital to visit his sick grandmother. On the way to her ward Raito had seen a young blonde girl sitting on the edge of her bed in a white gown, mouth open in awe as she traced nimble fingers through the air before her. A nearby nurse had made an exasperated sound and pushed past Raito, forcing the girl to lie back on her bed.

Later when Raito asked his father why the girl had acted so odd, he simply explained that 'some people see things we don't.'

--

"Nice to meet you." Raito replied numbly. L continued to stare at him with hollow eyes for a moment, before there was a loud gasp downstairs and the sound of the front door slamming.

Before he knew what was happening, Watari was pulling Raito back and gently directing L towards a nearby doorway that Raito realised was the boy's room. One L was calmly manoeuvred inside the room and the door was safely locked behind him Watari turned to Raito with a politely surprised expression on his face.

"It's quite interesting…" the old man murmured. "But Master L has never responded to a stranger before." 

Raito didn't know how to reply, but Watari seemed to decide that for him as he placed a hand against the small of his back and steered him down the stairs towards the front door.

"Same time tomorrow then?" Watari proffered. Raito blinked, not quite understanding.

"It would be nice if you could keep L some company during the day. Or," the old man gestured towards the dilapidated machine. "Would you prefer to continue garden duties?"

Raito nodded. "Tomorrow." He agreed, and made his way back to his house on shaky feet.

--

He didn't get much sleep that night, since he was mostly occupied by staring at the ghost boy who was holding a white hand to his bedroom window, gazing across the space between their houses with curious black eyes.


End file.
